A man who found thousands of dollars in cash did the honest thing and called police.

MIDVALE — For many people it would have been a dream come true.

In April, a man found an unattended package on the side of the road in Midvale. Inside was thousands of dollars in cash.

But rather than pocketing the money, he turned it over to police.

"I think what's important here is this person did the right thing by calling police and giving us an opportunity to give the money back to the rightful owner, because it is a signficant amount of money," said Unified Police Lt. Justin Hoyal.

Since turning it in, however, no one has called to report that they were missing a large amount of cash.

Because of that, police were releasing very few details Monday about the kind of package the money was found in, exactly how much cash was inside and on what street it was found. Anyone who thinks the money might be theirs can call 801-743-5818. Hoyal said people who attempt to claim the money will be asked very specific questions about the cash in order to verify it belongs to them.

If no one claims it after a certain amount of time, Hoyal said it's possible the good Samaritan could keep the money.

If the cash is suspected to be drug money or money used in the commission of a crime, detectives would still have to prove it before declining to give it back to the owner.

"We'd have to be able to prove it was evidence in a crime to be able to seize it. Just like a typical narcotics seizure, we have to prove that is evidence of narcotics trafficking," he said.

Pat is a veteran police and courts reporter for the Deseret News and KSL and has covered some of the biggest stories in Utah for the past two decades. He is a graduate of Michigan State University with a BA in journalism.